July 5

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Elizabeth and I enjoyed some family time yesterday as we celebrated the nation’s birthday and the birthday of our youngest daughter, Alex. I hope you had a great 4th and that you were able to thank a veteran for his or her service to our great nation.

Despite the holiday, we had a busy week in the Office of the Attorney General. I went to Franklin Circuit Court on Monday to argue our case against National College and why it should comply with a civil investigative subpoena we issued in December 2010. We’ve issued seven civil subpoenas to for-profit colleges doing business in Kentucky. National College is the only school that has not responded to our questions. Rather than answer our subpoena, National filed a meritless lawsuit claiming we lacked authority to investigate them. The trial court ruled in our favor, as did the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court refused to exercise its discretion to hear National's appeal, so the case is back in Franklin Circuit Court on a narrow issue.

The Court has ordered National to comply with the subpoena by July 15 or provide legal justification for failing to do so. We filed suit against National College in Fayette Circuit Court in September 2011 over allegations the school misrepresented job placement numbers to its students, however we have been unable to investigate the full extent of its operations while the Franklin Circuit case about our subpoena authority has been on appeal.

I appreciate Judge Phillip Shepherd’s careful consideration of this matter and was pleased that he recognized during the court proceedings that this matter is of the utmost importance to the Commonwealth and consumers, and it should be resolved quickly.

We also announced this week the final payments for Eastern Livestock victims. We distributed an additional $56,500 to Kentucky farmers who were swindled by the now-defunct Eastern Livestock, but who weren’t listed in the original indictment. This brings to nearly $900,000 the total amount of restitution we distributed to Kentucky farmers caught-up in Eastern’s check-kiting scheme. I am very proud of my staff and proud of the fact that we never lost sight of the victims, and never gave up trying to recover the money they lost. For more information, please see our press release.

I’ll be hitting the road next week, traveling to Winchester on Tuesday to speak to the Rotary Club. If you’re in the area, please stop by and say hello. I’m also looking forward to talking to Lisa Clark with WAIN Radio in Columbia, Ky. on Monday morning about the latest news from my office. I hope you’ll tune-in.